Mills in Nova Scotia not sharing the good times with woodlot owners

True, clearcuts have a place, but not on 90 per cent of forest areas cut every year. That’s where this province is with our forest “management.”

Some points in Aaron Beswick’s article are confusing, however.

Worldwide softwood lumber prices are at historic highs, but that seems to have no effect on roundwood prices to woodlot owners. Woodlot owners and operators receive 15- to 20-year-old prices for their wood resource. Our mills are not willing to share the wealth; the “trickle down” seems to have stopped at the mill gate. That’s why Peter Allen (and others) have to work so many long hours to make the thing work. That’s why 90 per cent of our woodlands get clearcut every year. As a woodlot owner and operator myself for the last 43 years, I see my woodlot as more of a liability than an asset. What other conclusion to draw when returns are so small that, unless I liquidate, I make such small returns?

Read more in Better Prices Needed by Tom Miller in Voice of the People (Chronicle Herald, Apr 11, 2018)

KG: The mills have always ripped us off..now freemans has a monopoly on all sw nova timber…private and crown…no way they will raise prices to a fair level…GVMNT MAKES SURE THEY DON’T HAVE TO!!! SIMPLY ATROCIOUS!!

AF: there not sharing with wood lot owners including the stumpage payed on crown land bought with our tax money and there not sharing with contractors working for them